For the Oregon hockey team, it appears, home ice makes all the difference.
A week after losing twice to Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., Oregon returned to the Lane County Ice Arena and blew out Washington State 12-4 and UCLA 7-1 on Friday and Saturday night, respectively.
“We just started really clicking this weekend,” said forward Cam Forni, who had eight points on the weekend. “We didn’t have the road legs from Arizona. We were home, we were comfortable and we just came out to play and played really well.”
Playing in front of a loud and energetic Oregon hockey record crowd of 527 people Friday night, the Ducks found success from the beginning of the first period.
The Ducks simply outmatched the Cougars offensively and jumped out to a 6-0 lead, while the defense stonewalled any Cougar attack. A slight breakdown by Oregon let Washington State score three goals to Oregon’s one in the second period, making it only a four-goal difference. The Cougars’ success wouldn’t last much longer, however. Oregon resumed its dominance on both sides of the ice, tallying five more scores and the win.
Overall, 13 of the 19 Oregon skaters scored a goal or had an assist on the night, and the Ducks converted an impressive .500 on power play opportunities, scoring seven times. The Ducks outshot the Cougars 46-16 on the night.
Eric Steinmann found the back of the net three times, both Forni and Cal Brackin had two goals and one assist apiece, and Sam Cehula and Jeff Gibb added four and three assists.
“(Washington State) played really cheap but we just kept our head on and we got our lines finally set,” Forni said.
Though the atmosphere wasn’t nearly as electric Saturday night, the result was just the same. UCLA managed to score on Oregon goalie Ryan Pinckard in the first period, but the junior went on to save 16 consecutive shots the rest of the night. The offense found its groove from the night before, and scored seven unanswered goals to seal the win and the weekend sweep.
In the third period alone, Oregon found the net three times on goals by Tyler McCarty, Forni and Tom Stocklin. Two of the goals scored in the period were on power plays, which Oregon converted 5-14 on the night. Oregon fired 57 shots on goal against the Bruins.
“It’s rough to be that goalie,” said defenseman and team captain Jeff Gibb.
“There’s a lot of good that came out of this weekend,” said head coach Scott McCallum. “They’re starting to realize that not every play has to be some really pretty, highlight-reel-type of play if we can just put that puck on the net, crash the net and play kind of bang-’em-up hockey we can win.”
Oregon will have another week of practice before heading to Los Angeles for a three-game weekend. After playing UCLA on Oct. 18, Oregon will play rival USC two straight nights, looking to knock off the defending Pac 8 champions.
The road test should provide the Ducks a more accurate sense of how developed the team is three weeks into the season.
“I don’t know if they (USC) are going to be quite as tough because they lost a lot of players, but as always it’ll be an even-matched game, high-powered rivalry game,” Gibb said.
[email protected]